About The Writers

Monday, September 5, 2011

Lazy Labor Day Post

We’re celebrating Labor Day today in the U.S., a day “dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.” (U.S. Department of Labor) The first observance of Labor Day was September 5, 1882, which, if my math is correct, makes this 129th holiday.

Many of us will observe this day by doing less work than usual. In the spirit of a little end-of-summer down time, today’s post is a collection of quotes relating to the work of writing. Enjoy your day!

People on the outside think there's something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn't like that. You sit in back of the typewriter and you work, and that's all there is to it.
Harlan Ellison

Writing is physical work. It's sweaty work. You just can't will yourself to become a good writer. You really have to work at it.
Will Haygood

The way you define yourself as a writer is that you write every time you have a free minute. If you didn't behave that way you would never do anything.John Irving

A writer never has a vacation. For a writer life consists of either writing or thinking about writing.
Eugene Ionesco

I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.
Thomas Jefferson

Through joy and through sorrow, I wrote. Through hunger and through thirst, I wrote. Through good report and through ill report, I wrote. Through sunshine and through moonshine, I wrote. What I wrote it is unnecessary to say.
Edgar A. Poe

Writing energy is like anything else. The more you put in, the more you get out.
Richard Reeves

Either marry your work – take it seriously and do it every day – or date it – write only when you feel like it – but know which you are doing and the repercussions of both.
Anonymous

I write to tell stories. I believe that there are some professions in the world that will last forever: doctor or a nurse, teacher, builder and a storyteller. I write also to become myself, more so day by day. Writing is a way to shape out visible and invisible, in myself as well as in the world.
Eppu Nuotio

Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the Internet.
Anonymous